1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 45

To LAMB, or LAMBASTE. To beat. Lamb pye; a beating: from lambo.

LAMB'S WOOL. Apples roasted and put into strong ale.

LAMBSKIN MEN. The judges: from their robes lined and bordered with ermine.

LAMP. An eye. The cove has a queer lamp. The man has a blind or squinting eye.

LAND. How lies the land? How stands the reckoning?

Who has any land in Appleby? a question asked the man at whose door the gla.s.s stands long, or who does not ciculate it in due time.

LAND LOPERS, or LAND LUBBERS. Vagabonds lurking about the country who subsist by pilfering.

LAND PIRATES. Highwaymen.

LANK SLEEVE. The empty sleeve of a one armed man.

A fellow with a lank sleeve; a man who has lost an arm.

LANSPRISADO. One who has only two-pence in his pocket.

Also a lance, or deputy corporal; that is, one doing the duty without the pay of a corporal. Formerly a lancier, or horseman, who being dismounted by the death of his horse, served in the foot, by the t.i.tle of lansprisado, or lancepesato, a broken lance.

LANTHORN-JAWED. Thin-visaged: from their cheeksbeing almost transparent. Or else, lenten jawed; i.e. having the jaws of one emaciated by a too rigid observation of Lent. Dark lanthorn; a servant or agent at court, who receives a bribe for his princ.i.p.al or master.

LAP. b.u.t.ter-milk or whey. CANT.

LARK. A boat.

LARK. A piece of merriment. People playing together jocosely.

LARRY DUGAN'S EYE WATER. Blacking: Larry Dugan was a famous shoe-black at Dublin.

LATCH. Let in.

LATHY. Thin, slender. A lathy wench; a girl almost as slender as a lath.

LAt.i.tAT. A nick-name for an attorney; from the name of a writ.

LAVENDER. Laid up in lavender; p.a.w.ned.

LAUGH. To laugh on the wrong side of the mouth; to cry.

I'll make him laugh on the wrong (or t'other) side of his mouth.

LAUNCH. The delivery, or labour, of a pregnant woman; a crying out or groaning.

LAW. To give law to a hare; a sporting term, signifying to give the animal a chance of escaping, by not setting on the dogs till the hare is at some distance; it is also more figuratively used for giving any one a chance of succeeding in a scheme or project.

LAWFUL BLANKET. A wife.

LAY. Enterprize, pursuit, or attempt: to be sick of the lay. It also means a hazard or chance: he stands a queer lay; i.e. he is in danger. CANT.

LAYSTALL. A dunghill about London, on which the soil brought from necessary houses is emptied; or, in more technical terms, where the old gold collected at weddings by the Tom t--d man, is stored.

LAZY. As lazy as Ludman's dog, who leaned against the wall to bark. As lazy as the tinker, who laid down his budget to f--t.

LAZY MAN'S LOAD. Lazy people frequently take up more than they can safely carry, to save the trouble of coming a second time.

LAZYBONES. An instrument like a pair of tongs, for old or very fat people to take any thing from the ground without stooping.

LEAF. To go off with the fall of the leaf; to be hanged: criminals in Dublin being turned off from the outside of the prison by the falling of a board, propped up, and moving on a hinge, like the leaf of a table. IRISH TERM.

TO LEAK. To make water.

LEAKY. Apt to blab; one who cannot keep a secret is said to be leaky.

LEAPING OVER THE SWORD. An ancient ceremonial said to const.i.tute a military marriage. A sword being laid down on the ground, the parties to be married joined hands, when the corporal or serjeant of the company repeated these words:

Leap rogue, and jump wh.o.r.e, And then you are married for evermore.

Whereupon the happy couple jumped hand in hand over the sword, the drum beating a ruffle; and the parties were ever after considered as man and wife.

LEAST IN SIGHT. To play least in sight; to hide, keep out of the way, or make one's self scarce.

LEATHER. To lose leather; to be galled with riding on horseback, or, as the Scotch express it, to be saddle sick.

To leather also meant to beat, perhaps originally with a strap: I'll leather you to your heart's content. Leather-headed; stupid. Leathern conveniency; term used by quakers for a stage-coach.

LEERY. On one's guard. See PEERY.

LEFT-HANDED WIFE. A concubine; an allusion to an ancient German custom, according to which, when a man married his concubine, or a woman greatly his inferior, he gave her his left hand.

LEG. To make a leg; to bow. To give leg-bail and land security; to run away. To fight at the leg; to take unfair advantages: it being held unfair by back-sword players to strike at the leg. To break a leg; a woman who has had a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, is said to have broken a leg.

LEGGERS. Sham leggers; cheats who pretend to sell smuggled goods, but in reality only deal in old shop-keepers or damaged goods.

LENTEN FARE. Spare diet.

LETCH. A whim of the amorous kind, out of the common way.

LEVITE. A priest or parson.

TO LIB. To lie together. CANT.

LIBBEGE. A bed. CANT.

LIBBEN. A private dwelling-house. CANT.

LIBKEN. A house to lie in. CANT.

TO LICK. To beat; also to wash, or to paint slightly over.

I'll give you a good lick o' the chops; I'll give you a good stroke or blow on the face. Jack tumbled into a cow t--d, and nastied his best clothes, for which his father stept up, and licked him neatly.--I'll lick you! the dovetail to which is, If you lick me all over, you won't miss--.